Shallow Work is Threatening Your Clinic’s Growth

Podcast Transcript

If you’re feeling like your practice isn’t thriving the way it should or like the other osteopaths you know are further ahead than you are, you’re probably missing one key ingredient: true focus on what actually matters.

Deep Work by Cal Newport shows you how to prioritise high-value, undistracted work that leads to real progress, not just busywork. This book goes through how you can get more done and be more efficient with your time.

Welcome back to Behind The Osteopath. My name is Alan Zaia, I’m an osteopath and Founder of Osteohustle where we bring osteopaths together to plan, build and grow your dream career.

Welcome to 2025! If you’re new to the podcast, welcome! Behind The Osteopath is centred around the idea that you should never open a clinic without fully understanding what it takes and a part of that means me covering another 10 books I believe every osteopath should read.

Deep Work is book 18 in the series. I first read this after I graduated in 2017, again when I was nearly one year into being a clinic owner and I read it again for this podcast.

This podcast will only continue if it makes waves in the osteopathic community and the way I measure that is by looking at how many followers it has, number of 5 star reviews, emails I get from you, those kind of things. So, if you find value in what we’re doing here at Osteohustle, please rate it, share it with your osteo mates, your principal, associates, Facebook forums, Instagram stories—all that good stuff. Thank you.

As always, read the book for yourself because I won’t cover everything in a 30-minute podcast. Your local library might even have a copy, so check it out and support our libraries.

So, Cal Newport starts the book by defining Deep Work as “the professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill and are hard to replicate.”

In translation for us, you want to put yourself in a place where you’re not being distracted and put doing the work that needs doing, learning things, especially things that you don’t want to learn and making deep work a habit.

This concept is at the heart of what it takes to improve as a clinic owner and, typically, self-employed osteopath. It’s about moving beyond the daily/weekly grind of shallow work—things like admin tasks, social media, emails—and instead focusing on what will truly set your practice apart.

As you can already tell, this book often speaks to people who are called knowledge workers, but for us osteopaths, the principles are even more critical because running a clinic is not just about treating patients; it’s about building a sustainable, thriving business so that we can in-turn continue to practise osteopathy.

With that being said, I’ve got 8 lessons from Deep Work, so let’s dive into lesson one.

Lesson 1: What is Deep Work?

Newport argues that deep work is increasingly rare and valuable in today’s world. He describes it as a superpower—something that sets high achievers apart from the rest. Now, think about your own day. How often do you get to sit down and work on something important without interruptions? For most of us, the answer is “rarely”—but it doesn’t have to be this way.

Cal emphasises three key aspects of deep work:

1. Distraction-free concentration: Deep work requires an environment where focus is undisturbed by external or internal distractions, allowing for focused mental effort.
2. Pushing cognitive limits: It involves tasks that challenge you intellectually, helping you grow and develop skills.
3. Creating value: The output from deep work is significant—whether it’s mastering a skill, solving a complex problem or creating something impactful.

Deep work could be the time you spend really pushing your practice forward whether that’s refreshing yourself on a specific condition and how to best treat it, learning about how to implement effective marketing methods, developing your leadership skills so you can better help your associates get what they want from working at your practice. Whatever it is, it’s the kind of work that demands your full attention and results in tangible progress.

Here’s how to get started. You need to schedule time for deep work. Start small if you have to—even 30 minutes of uninterrupted focus each day can make a big difference. Put your phone on airplane mode, shut your door and make this time non-negotiable. Let everyone who needs to know that this is your “do not disturb” time.

We tell our business coaching clients to treat this uninterrupted time the same way that you’d treat an appointment with a patient. You know, you wouldn’t just cancel that appointment just because you don’t feel like it. This is time that you may not get paid for in the moment, but you will when the work you do results in a fuller diary in the future or by helping your associates grow independently. Deep work is that important because it actively contributes to the success of your career.

Lesson 2: The Cost of Shallow Work

Newport describes shallow work as “tasks that don’t require much brainpower but still take up time”—things like basic admin, creating social media posts etc. While these tasks might feel productive, they’re not moving your clinic or career forward.

Imagine spending hours tweaking your Instagram captions when you could be using that time to improve your patient communication skills. Shallow work is sneaky because it feels urgent, but it often crowds out the deep work that truly matters.

To find out if you’re doing shallow work, start by auditing your week. Write down everything you do and categorise each task as “deep” or “shallow.” Could some of those shallow tasks be delegated? For instance, if you’re still manually scheduling appointments, could you invest in practice management software? Same goes for taking phone calls. It’s important for you to think about automating where you can and delegating where you can’t.

I’ll admit that if you’re not in a position where you can buy back your time by paying a company to do things for you, of course this isn’t super relevant, but it’s still helpful to know, “right I know it’s going to cost me x amount to invest in a virtual receptionist, so as soon as I’m earning x amount, I know I can then invest in that virtual receptionist”. I hope that makes sense.

Lesson 3: Creating Your “Tower” of Focus

One of my favourite stories from Deep Work is about Carl Jung, who built a retreat called the Bollingen Tower to focus on his groundbreaking work. Jung knew that to create something truly impactful, he needed a space free from distractions.

Now, I get it—building a stone tower in the countryside isn’t exactly realistic for most of us. But the principle still applies. Your “tower” could be a quiet corner of your clinic or even a specific time block where you’re completely off-limits. The key is to set boundaries.

So, decide where and when you’ll do your deep work. Maybe it’s early mornings before the clinic opens or late evenings after the kids are in bed. Communicate this to whoever you need to and stick to it. Protecting your focus is just as important as protecting your clinic’s finances.

Lesson 4: Attention Residue

Have you ever tried switching between tasks and felt like you couldn’t fully concentrate on either? That’s attention residue. Newport explains that when you jump from one task to another, part of your attention stays with the original task, making it harder to focus on the new one.

For us as osteopaths, this might look like transitioning from writing up patient notes to making amendments to our website without mentally resetting. This results in reduced productivity and increased frustration.

Cal suggests batching similar tasks together. For example, dedicate a block of time to writing patient notes and another to handling marketing. By grouping tasks, you’ll minimise task-switching and stay sharper.

Lesson 5: The Power of Single-Tasking

Building on lesson 4, multitasking is a myth. Newport argues that to do your best work, you need to focus on one thing at a time. When you try to juggle multiple tasks, you end up doing a pretty mediocre job on all of them.

Have a think about this in the context of your patients. If you’re thinking about your next appointment while treating the patient in front of you, you’re not fully present—and that affects the quality of care you provide.

It may sound obvious, but it’s important to practice single-tasking. When you’re with a patient, give them your undivided attention. When you’re planning your clinic’s finances, get rid of all other distractions. If you’re writing up a bunch of social media posts, you don’t want to have your emails open, distracting you from a potential incoming email.

Lesson 6: Building Rituals for Success

You’ve all heard this before, but while it is important to be reminded, I’ll keep it short. Newport suggests creating a set routine to signal to your brain that it’s time to focus. This could be as simple as starting your day with 30 minutes of planning, a cup of coffee or ending it with a reflection so your future-self knows where to pick things up.

Basically, rituals help make deep work a habit, so find one wherever you can. The most effective one you can do is to block off at least half a day where you can implement deep work that pushes your goals and therefore your career forward.

Lesson 7: Saying No to Protect Your Focus

Cal says “You must be willing to say no to shallow commitments”. This is easier said than done, especially in our profession where we’re naturally inclined to help others. But saying yes to every opportunity you know you shouldn’t do often leads to burnout and prevents you from focusing on what truly matters.

So, start practising saying no. If something doesn’t align with your goals, it’s okay to decline. Protecting your time and energy is essential because your career is a marathon, not a sprint.

Lesson 8: Digital Minimalism for Focus

The final lesson is another great reminder. It’s again obvious, but Newport is a big advocate for limiting digital distractions. He explains that the ability to concentrate is like a muscle—it gets stronger the more you use it, but it also weakens if you let distractions take over.

If you’d like to learn more about this, the best book is Make Time, which is episode 8.

Summary

Deep work isn’t just a productivity hack; it’s a way of life that helps you achieve meaningful progress in your career and personal fulfilment.

Thank you for listening to Behind The Osteopath. If you found value, please share this episode with your osteo friends, principal, associates, all that good stuff and leave a 5 star review while you’re at it.

See you next week. Cheers.